“I am especially desirous—in fact, I lay it on you as a charge—that you should keep yourself informed from day to day (which you will have no difficulty in doing) of the state of my dear father’s health; and, should any necessity arise for you to do so, I rely upon you to at once telegraph to me, under the name of ‘John Alexander,’ to the address given you on the other side. That this is most important you will readily understand, and that you will not neglect my wishes in the matter I feel assured. “And now goodbye till we meet again—if ever we do. “Your friend, “A. C.” “Rigg, I should like to keep this, if you have no objection,” said the Baronet when he had read it carefully through. “No objection whatever, Sir Gilbert; only I should like you to bear in mind that I should have kept my promise to Master Alec, and that nobody would have got a word out of me, if you, sir, hadn’t forced me to speak.” “That I quite understand. Under the circumstances no option was left you. But I wish you still to preserve the same secrecy. Not a syllable about this business must pass your lips to anyone else.” “Neither me nor Dulcie is of the gossiping sort. You may trust us for that, sir.” “I am quite sure I may. And now I won’t detain you further; but I may tell you this—that, in the long run, you will find yourself no loser by this morning’s work.” No sooner had the ex-keeper gone than the Baronet sought Lady Pell in her own room and was closeted with her for nearly a couple of hours. One result of the interview was that he sent a groom to bring back Everard Lisle, who, his morning’s work dispatched, had left the Chase some time before. “Lisle, I want you to start in the course of a few hours for America,” he said to Everard when the latter had returned. “You will be the bearer of a note to my long-lost eldest son, John Alexander Clare, who, astounding to relate, I now find, from evidence which it is impossible to dispute, did not meet his death years ago, as, at the time, I was fully led to believe. But I need not enter into particulars just now. It is enough to say that he is still alive. So make your preparations for starting in the morning, and, when you come to dinner this evening, the note I want you to take will be ready for you, and I shall then be in a position to give you my final instructions.” In a matter of such vital importance it did not seem enough to Sir Gilbert to merely entrust his message to the post. A letter might, or might not, reach Alec; but he felt satisfied that Lisle would not rest till he had hunted him down, wherever he might be, and had put his father’s message of forgiveness into his hands. The note Sir Gilbert wrote was a very brief one, and, such as it was, his nervous excitement was so extreme as to render it all but illegible. “Alec, my son, all is forgiven and forgotten,” he wrote. “Come back to me—come back. I want you. It is your father who asks this of you.” CHAPTER XLIV. BACK AT ST. OSWYTH’S